Re: baloon launcher - Cheap way to get to space

I think some one is already using that idea or some veriation of that idea for there chance at the X-prize. There going there ballon to take there space ship to 80,000 feet and then release there space ship. It would not be practical to suck the helium or hydrogen back into the space craft. This X-prize contestants are out of Canada. But, I don't have a web link to it or know the company name.

Re: baloon launcher - Cheap way to get to space

The Ansari X Prize hopes to do the same for space tourism. Scaled Composites’ chief engineer, Burt Rutan, believes that eventually passengers could experience a brief space voyage at a cost of $30,000 to $50,000 per person, with prices dropping in the long run to $10,000 to $12,000 each. It is unclear what effect the popularity of the Ansari X Prize will have on U.S. government space spending.

Re: baloon launcher - Cheap way to get to space

NASA to Use Sweden Balloon Launch AreaNASA to Use Sweden Facility to Launch Scientific Balloons, Prompting Expansion of Property

snipet:Already a leading launch area for scientific balloons in northern Europe, operations at Sweden's Esrange launch facility will expand next year with NASA's decision to use it for launches of its largest scientific balloons, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Re: baloon launcher - Cheap way to get to space

As we grow nearer to the time when the xprize will be won we need to ask those would be Astronauts to Weigh Acceptable Risk as they prepare for flight.

snipet:It's a tiny drama in the history of space flight -- an argument between a do-it-yourself Canadian astronaut and doubters alarmed he's about to foolishly expose himself and others to harm by blasting off in a largely untested rocket ship.

Re: baloon launcher - Cheap way to get to space

While not an xprize idea balloons have been thought of being used for lots of applications. Even the military has had a few thoughts on owning the skys by there presense. It has even been used for other such platforms to view the stars above. While this one is to make a buck from not launching satelites to geo orbit.

Telecommunications: After years of hype, a new, cheaper way to blanket cities with wireless coverage may finally be about to get off the ground.

Next month Sanswire Networks, a company based in Atlanta, Georgia, is planning to launch the first airship satellite, or “stratellite”. Floating in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 20km (13 miles), the airship will behave just like a geostationary satellite, hovering over a particular spot and relaying radio signals to and from the ground. Such airships will, however, be much cheaper to launch and maintain than satellites—and can do things that satellites cannot.

Re: baloon launcher - Cheap way to get to space

The lower stratosphere just over the tropopause has very calm winds. It should be very easy to maneuver an airship around in, and is still low enough in the atmosphere that gross displacements of several hundred tons are conceivable. It's the perfect place to park a large station or launch platform for a few months at a time, and it offers a few hundred meters per second in potential energy of position.

The same is true of the mesospheric region just over the stratopause, though the thin air at that height supports much less payload.

The only trouble is that anything you put up there has to get across the troposphere, where the winds can be violent enough to rip such a vehicle to shreds. Once in that cozy stratospheric niche, the airship will need to hang on for dear life. An 18 month operating time for such a vehicle might sound optimistic, but it's only a comfortable margin. Midlevel tropospheric winds could be impassable to a large airship for months at a time every year, and no stratospheric airship should go up if it can't stay there for at least an entire season.